Burden
by Lialane Graest
Summary: "My love would only be a burden to you, Marie." There is no love in Franken Stein according to Nygus, so can Marie understand when Stein rejects her? Or is it really rejection to begin with?


"My love would only be a burden to you, Marie." Stein said, not looking up from his monitor.

Marie's fists were clenched in anger. _'I just poured out how I feel, everything that I've gone through living here, every little thing I've kept a secret from him AND confessed, finally, that I love him… and that's all he says?'_ She could feel the tears welling up in her eye. She stood there, fighting the tears, giving him time to add to or change what he had said. He remained silent and she angrily spun around and stomped out of his lab.

Stein shook his head. _'Why can she not understand that she shouldn't even stay here, much less want to give her love to me? Why must she ask that I let myself love her? Nygus said it: I have no love in me. Why can Marie not see that?'_ He turned his attention back to the computer screen, completely ignoring the woman seething behind him until she left. It was mercifully silent when she did.

He pushed his chair away from his desk and lit a cigarette before taking a long careful drag of it, blowing the smoke up and against the ceiling, watching as it formed a small skull before fading away. Closing his eyes he turned the screw protruding from his skull before taking another drag on the cigarette, holding the smoke in his lungs before exhaling, almost sighing.

"_I simply cannot understand." _He whispered into the smoke, twisting the screw again. Not understanding was something that he wasn't used to, and he found the situation unsettling. Pitching forward he stared intently at the computer screen, pushing the feeling away. He continued working on the research that Marie had interrupted.

* * *

Marie collapsed against the lab door after she had stormed out, tears flowing down her cheek as she bit her lip to keep from sobbing out loud. A small voice whispered to her.

"_He's like all the others. He's just using you, Marie. He doesn't love you, and he's just going to hurt you." _Marie shook her head violently.

"Stein would never hurt me." She told the voice sullenly, tears cracking her voice.

"_All the others have. He will too. It's time to move on; Franken Stein has no love in him."_ The voice repeated Nygus' words to her.

"He does." She told herself. "He loves dissection. He loves his students…" She trailed off.

"_But not me..."_ Her inner voice finished for her. Marie covered her mouth with her hand, sobbing. She stood and walked out of the lab into the night.

* * *

"Marie?" Stein called as he walked out of the lab a while later. "Marie?" A quick search with his Soul Perception revealed no one in the lab, or even near it.

'_Where could she have gone? It's night. She should be asleep.'_ His stomach rumbled, and he wondered absently if she had cooked like normal, but then focused on figuring out where she was. Shaking his head he stepped out of the lab. _'It's a good thing I'm so familiar with her wavelength. I should find her shortly.'_

* * *

Marie sat in a small diner, a suitcase sitting on the floor underneath the table. She stared down into the cup of coffee that the waitress had brought her, stifling tears and a yawn. She'd been sitting here for nearly an hour, unsure of where to go from here. She heard the bell ring announcing another patron, but didn't think anything of it until she felt the presence beside her table. She assumed it was the waitress.

"I'm fine for now, thanks." She said without looking up, her eyes closed.

"I hardly believe that to be the truth, Marie." She couldn't help but gasp and glance up. Stein stood, no towered, above her. He wasn't looking at her though; he was looking at the suitcase that sat underneath the table. "Where were you going to go, Marie? You know as well as I do that you don't really want to leave." She could just see the ghost of a smirk on his face as he sat down across from her, but it was gone as quickly as she thought she saw it.

"I can get a hotel room for a few days before I go back to Oceania." She said bitterly, looking down into her coffee. "It's obvious you no longer need me here."

"No, I don't Marie." He said simply, and she looked up as she felt a finger touch the back of her hand. "That doesn't mean that I don't want you here."

Her eye opened wide and she looked at Stein. He removed his finger from her hand, lighting a cigarette. "I told you that my love would be a burden to you, Marie."

She just smiled, finally understanding. No matter what Nygus said, Stein could love; he just had to let himself.

* * *

**A/N: So sue me. I wanted fluff that wasn't part of Heart Shaped Stitches. This follows the manga, and takes place before they go to the moon. She knows he still needs her, but she's in a lot of pain from his (apparent) rejection. I hope that you all enjoy this :-) And yes... I know it's short :(  
**

**Love you all!  
**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**


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